And now, the first leak from Soul Tape 3

For those that don’t know, Fabolous‘ newest project, the third installment in his Soul Tape trilogy, Soul Tape 3, will be out on Christmas. To some, it may be the biggest, shiniest present wrapped under the tree, to others, a large lump of coal in the stocking, but the general consensus is that Mr. Jackson does still have the ears of just about everyone in the industry. Despite his lack of product (his last album was in stores over 4 years ago), and a decline in quality (none of his latest releases even hold a candle to his pre-2009 albums/mixtapes), Fabolous is still a force to be reckoned with in the mainstream space.

Cue in “Everything Was The Same”, the Stacy Barthe-assisted re-make of Drake‘s Nothing Was The Same outro, “Paris Morton Music II”, and its accompanying music video, which were released simultaneously today. Despite his re-usage of opening bars “Old enough to know better/young enough to not give a f*ck/Would rather hold my head high and die/than live and duck”, a Karen Civil/Beats by Dre metaphor on which the jury is still out, and a weird correlation between his verse, which declares just how different things were back in the 90′s, and the title “Everything Was The Same”, Fabolous still manages to show signs of life. And not hospice, brain-dead, vegetative life. Actual walking, breathing, moving, life. His flow isn’t necessarily back to Loso’s Way form, or even There Is No Competition 2, but it works, and for that, there’s hope for Soul Tape 3.

-Khari Nixon (@KingVanGogh)